Today, as perhaps never before, with the world's energy resources declining and energy companies unable to keep up with the demand, it is imperative that all possible measures be taken in order to conserve fuel and electricity that is used. In power plants, as well as industrial processes and air conditioning systems, condensers play an important role in conversion of heat to usable energy. The efficiency of operation of the condenser directly affects the efficiency of conversion so that an increase in condenser efficiency gives an increase in total energy conservation.
To illustrate this principle, one might consider a typical steam plant operation where the net heat rate is approximately 9,500 BTU per kilowatt hour; i.e. the plant will produce 1 kilowatt hour per 9,500 BTU of heat generated. Utilizing empirical data, it has been determined that when the condenser cleanliness factor is improved from, say 50 to 85 percent a corresponding decrease in heat rate is approximately 2 percent. Thus, if the condenser is kept on the average at 85 percent cleanliness factor it will take 190 less BTU per kilowatt hour to operate the steam plants. Perhaps more revealing is the savings in terms of dollars, which works out to about $20,000 per month in direct fuel cost savings.
In addition to saving of energy, providing a more efficient cleaning of the condenser gives benefits in terms of environmental protection. With the increase of heat transfer efficiency brought about by the cleaner walls of the tubes, a lower discharge temperature of the cooling water by several degrees is realized. This protects the rivers and lakes from growth of algae, fish kill and other deleterious side effects.
With the need for more efficient cleaning of condensers, identified both in terms of better cleaning and the speed with which a condenser can be cleaned, I have looked to the areas that might be identified where advantages can be gained. First, the basic system for cleaning tubes comprising passing a plug through the tube to scrape the interior wall has been proven over many years of successful operation and experience, so that no change here is indicated. This then leads directly to improvement of the mechanical design of the heart of the system, and that is the plug itself. One of the first systems for cleaning condensers, shown in the U.S. Patent to Penn No. 1,547,440 typifies the recognition that is given to the importance of the form of the plug to the efficiency of the system. In this patent, and the many that follow, plugs of different configurations have been invented in an attempt to increase the efficiency of the cleaning operation. Most of these plugs have been for use with air, steam or water as the propelling medium and most have been fabricated of resilient rubber. In addition, brushes in combination with solid rubber plugs, plugs with metal scraping blades and even short lengths of rope have been suggested by others in the quest for increased cleaning efficiency. Thus, while the plugs have worked sufficiently to prove the basic soundness of the cleaning system, today, especially with the energy crises and the need for environmental protection becoming paramount, the previous designs are deemed not to be good enough and an even more efficient design in the plug of the cleaning system is needed. With this background in mind, my invention has been developed to accomplish the following objectives.